How I secured multiple 200K+ offers (From start to finish)

Job hunting ain’t easy. The application process is soul sucking and debilitating on the ego. There were times I would say “What the fuck is wrong with me? Why does nobody want to hire me”?

It’s hard not to feel like a piece of shit when you’re hunting for work because the job market is absolutely brutal. How do you not take it personally? I mean really? The same out of touch assholes giving advice are the same ones who haven’t actually had to job hunt themselves in years or are out to peddle their garbage services. Please fuck off with your sales course my guy.

Picture Perfect Resume

So a bit about my background, I’ve been rolling around in the mud doing the dirty parts of business for the past 15 years or so. I’ve door knocked, sold 100% commission, done a bit of everything. I have perspective on sales because I’ve seen so many different angles of it.

And I’m not beating my chest like a silverback gorilla, promise, but I’m pretty okay at what I do. Multi President’s Club, top 1% producer for multiple companies, generating millions in revenue. Full-Cycle AE sales stuff that would put hair on your chest. Stuff that would make your VP have wet dreams on. I’m pretty terrible at a lot of things but sales shit is basically my whole identity. Talk revenue to me, daddy, it’s what I love.

…And I got fuck all with applications.

Believe me, I’ve tried just about everything you’re told to do.

I scientifically engineered my resume to be perfect. Put that bitch together with AI using GPT 4o/Gemini, took descriptions and qualifications from 20+ different job postings and lasered in on passing ATS scans with absolute mental precision. Here’s the most recent one I submitted (Feel free to use it for inspiration or whatever, this is my personal real resume).

Hundreds of submissions, baby - crickets, cobwebs, and daily rage.

LinkedIn/Indeed/Glassdoor/Company websites, it really didn’t seem to matter where I applied, the results were virtually the same where I went. I had marginally better results with LinkedIn but it all felt like playing Russian Roulette with my career. If you weren’t submitting within the first 2 hours, it’s almost a guarantee you’d get lost with the overwhelming amount of applicants.

Fucked, right? Doesn’t matter what your achievements are, you ain’t getting through that bullshit. You can bet your butt cheeks on that.

Now you might chalk that up to my experience as being “job hoppy” or that I don’t spend enough time in any particular role or that most of my employment has been spent with no-name startups, or that I don’t have the right amount of education but as you’ll come to find later in this newsletter, that really doesn’t mean fuck all.

Reinvention of my job search

After I hit a wall with applying for work traditionally, I decided to switch gears. Got more strategic. Changed up my approach. Got more tailored. Got more public. Started treating the job process more like prospecting.

I’d target a handful of accounts I wanted to work for and mapped out the org, focused first on ones I had connections with at the companies I wanted to work for. Find the recruiter/AE/BDR/Manager/Director/VP (in that order), look for their direct contact number/email, look at their LI for anything I could leverage and I’d send them a personalized message talking about how I’d level up their sales team.

The biggest obstacle was getting a damn reply. The other obstacle was prospecting on a budget. The wallet starts to get real thin when you’re deciding to choose between rent and homelessness. LI offers Sales Nav for $0 if you haven’t subbed for a minute for 30 days, I took full advantage of that. I also have a subscription to Apollo for ~$50 that I also used.

Here’s a sample message I sent to the CEO of Klue:

As a secondary measure, I also started publicly documenting my job search stuffing my ego way way way down to exonerate my shame of failure.

If I saw anyone post something about a role, I’d immediately contact them.

This particular message I used a piece of their application to send to an AE who worked there to get myself an internal referral.

An Offer So Good It Would Be Stupid To Say “No”

For a solid few months, I was pretty consistent in treating the job hunt like a full time job. I’d wake up, hit up the job boards, post publicly about my search, reach out to my internal network for any leads (although I’m careful to use this too much), but still, I wasn’t really finding the success I was looking for.

My pipeline for interviews felt anemic and while I would find some nominal success trying to solo run this, my eureka moment came when I made an absolutely ridiculous and frankly bodacious offer.

Verbatim:

My offer: I’m willing to work 100% commission for your company on the contingency WHEN I close a deal, you bring me on as a full-cycle AE. Let my interview be my actual work talent, not on imperfections regarding how I can talk about myself. I’ll even deliver in under 90 days.

56,972 impressions, 454 reactions, 12 reposts, and I had a banger on my hands.

I created an offer so good it would be stupid to say no to it. Told potential employers I’d work for 100% commission and I’d close a deal within 90 days. Walked them through my exact qualifications and showed hard skills how I’d win (I really just copied/pasta’d bits of my resume but it looked dope to the algorithm).

See, my experience from back in the day I’d knock doors selling roofs/solar/credit repair/cell phones, so working 100% commission wasn’t really a scary thing. To me anyway. Canvassing neighborhoods in Texas heat was normal not too long ago.

On the surface it looked insane but it really wasn’t, I knew this world — But I needed to derisk what I could, just like I would with prospects. I’m not exactly a pedigree candidate, either. I don’t have an amazing educational background and my experience on the surface was flimsy at best.

My resume said the exact same thing as my LI post. The EXACT same thing. And look what happened:

And the real results…

Within 72 hours I had roughly 17 interviews scheduled; among them was Oracle, SAP, Remote, Gong, and several earlier stage startups.

My inbox was packed with people wanting to have conversations.

“Well obviously you got a lot of traction, you’re basically working for free”

See, you’d think that. But it really wasn’t. I was pretty calculated at how I presented my offer. I disqualified opportunities if I sniffed any hint of bullshit.

See, once I started getting companies like Oracle in my pipeline, I absolutely could start getting picky.

Mind you, these were inbounds knocking on my door. Including Oracle. I managed to fast track myself ahead of 400 candidates with a manager qualifying herself to me.

Even crazier though, the majority of companies I interviewed with loved the hustle but didn’t require I actually work 100% commission.

Unintended Lessons Learned/TL;DR;

If tradition is failing you, don’t be afraid to go outside the box.

Also, the interview process is ridiculously emotional. I’ll talk more about the that in my next letter.

Stay good. Stay savage.

-Landon